Namevoyager plots baby names as a function of time. Type the name in the upper left hand corner.

Who the hell was the Randall that resulted in my class having about 20 Randys? A movie star?

Other fun graphs: Tiffany, Madison, Adolph, Emma, Brandee. Strange prefix effects: Why did BR names take off? Why the Mountain of Da?

And can anyone find a name that stays relatively constant over time?

Marketing list suppliers target people by age which they determine by first names. So Gladys, for example, is likely to be an old lady whereas "Kylie" will be young.

Some names don't work as they have no significant popularity change; in the UK "John" is an example of a name that has been fairly popular for years.

What a great site! I could (and did, and will) play with that for hours! My last name by marriage is very boring (Williams) so when I was pregnant I was determined to find a first name that wasn't "odd" and would still be rather unique in the area. I used to sit at the library customer database, typing in my last name and various first names to find one that didn't already have a long list of people with library cards. LOL

This graph is very cool! Looks like I wasn't as close to being a trend-setter with Simon in 1994 as I had hoped!

Oh, neveu, thanks for that link. It was so much fun! I kept plugging in names all night! The funny part was, most of the dates of the people's names that I put in were completely consistent with their dates of birth. I had no idea that names are that faddy. [Dictionary.com insists that the adjective form of "fad" is "faddy," though I thought it was "fadish."]

Of course, there is a geoographical distinction, too. Many names that are presently popular in the USA are old-fashioned in the UK - and vice versa. This graph is clearly that of US names.

Oh good, Richard - I was going to ask about that. I figured it was only US since it so closely match my experience, like Kalleh describes.

That is a great site! My son's name, Brian, peaked in popularity in the '70s, when it ranked 8; he was born in 1970. My daughter's name, Teresa, peaked in the early '60s at 25, but was down to 48 in the '70s; she was born in 1972. But I couldn't find Tinman!

Tinman

What fun! Now I know why I named my son Eric (14th in the '70's) and why my grandson was named Jacob (#1 in 2003). So THAT'S why they didn't like any of my choices!

Hey, I just found an outlier...finally! My grandfather's name is "Darby," and that peaked in the 1990s and had nothing before the 1960s.

Richard, what are some of the names you consider old-fashioned that are popular here, and vice versa? BTW, Richard, while John has dropped since 1910 (# 1), it still was ranked as 17 in 2003.

Do you know that Uriel ranked 435 in 2003? Uriel? I haven't even heard of it!

My! my! Another night spent looking up names... I really must get a life!

Well, a quick glance reveals Sidney and Hannah as being popular US names whereas James, popular now in the UK, is not very popular in the USA.

It would be good to find a country comparison somewhere.

quote:

outlier

I've not heard that term before, Kalleh! I know what you mean, though - this site is WAY too distracting for me at work!

My great-grandmother, Emma's name has had an interesting history. Nearly completely out of use in the 60's and #2 in 2003. Too bad it doesn't show back to 1880 when she was born.

Very very interesting site, neveu. Thanks!

I found it interesting that names beginning with a vowel, any vowel, were much more popular at the start and end of the century. In every case, there was a notable trough in mid-century.

Some hypotheses:

1) The Periodicity of Gary:
Common, 'classic' names have a period of about 120-140 years. Names that peaked in 1900 bottom out in 1960-1970 and then climb. Very few names stay relatively constant over time. The most constant name I've found is Victor.

2) Phonetic cohesion: as Hic noted about the vowels, names that start with the same letters seem to rise and fall together. Look at SHA

3) What goes up...: The more rapidly a new name is incorporated, the more rapidly it vanishes.

It doesn't appear on my screen . I'm sure I have Java, which is what it says you must have enabled, but I don't know how to find out!

Ooh, I hate being a techno-dunce!

Oh, that's too bad, Cat, because it is a marvelous site. Any ideas of how Cat might bring it up?

Richard, I don't know either a "Hannah" or a "Sidney." The latter name peaked in 1910, but seems to have a smaller peak in 2003.

CW, "outlier" is particularly used when describing data points that are way outside of the average. I hadn't realized that it wasn't in general use.

I particularly looked up "Emma," CW, because that was the name that Rachel chose for her baby on "Friends." I was surprised to see it the #2 name now!

quote:

Richard, I don't know either a "Hannah" or a "Sidney." The latter name peaked in 1910, but seems to have a smaller peak in 2003.

I am going by the site. I doubt very much that there will be many UK Sidneys or Hannahs name in 2003. I don't know of any myself although I did have two Uncle Sids, both born in Victoria's reign.

I've got to check this out, and will immediately on leaving Wordcraft. As a young parent of a (future) large family, it becomes very important to know which names are just becoming fashionable so as to avoid them. There were four Charlottes and five Emmas in my year at school, all of whom must have found it very taxing.

The problem is that all well-meaning middle-class parents-to-be are on the same quest, which I think is the fuel for the fads. Everyone finds the same nice name that isn't too popular and all of a sudden...

It works now - my friend reinstalled Java for me

And ha! My name (or at least, my spelling of it) wasn't even in the top 1000 in the 70s (the decade of my birth). Kind of telling really...

Reviving a thread...

I was talking with a friend recently who had a baby and has been into names. She was mentioning some names that have become quite popular recently, such as "Madison" and "Kennedy." Are we having a presidential revival? In trying to see what the most popular names are, I found this site. You can put any year in to see how the names have changed over the years.

You might also have fun with this site, which I suspect is the same thing in graphic form. Lots more names, too. Mind, it does help to have pretty good fine motor control...

Yup - I like that second one for the play-factor. The one from the Social Security Administration is interesting, to, though. I find it interesting that my own name (Catherine) has few hits for my year, but then I remember that many of the other Cathys I know don't spell it the same way. Lots of variety for the same result. Still made things confusing on the playground!

Actually, at the top of this thread, Neveu had posted that fun graph that Hab just posted. I could spend hours just putting names in.

I think "Kennedy" is a interesting. If you put that in the graph, there was a slight blip for that name in the 60s (makes sense!)...for boys. However, starting in 2004-05 it has had a big revival, with a huge majority of the names being girls.

Reviving a thread...
I just read in the NY Times that the girl's name Neveah has cracked the top 100 girls' names, being the fastest growing name in more than a century. It is "heaven" spelled backwards.

The name is traced back to 2000 when Sonny Sandoval, a Christian rock star, named his daughter Neveah.

If you put it in the graph at the top of this thread, you will see that there were no names before 2000...and after that it has peaked.

Once again I am reviving this thread because of a comment about "Agnes" I made in another thread. Sure enough that name doesn't seem to be reviving. I have just spent way too long checking out lots of names.

I was watching Planet Earth with my daughter-in-law tonight and I saw someone I knew on the program, a woman named LLyn. I remember the first time I saw her name in print I thought it was a typo and made some comment, to which she replied "I think I know how to spell my own name." I had never seen it spelled that way before.

Tonight I began wondering where the LL comes from. The only other name I could remember beginning with double L was LLoyd, though I've thought of LLewellyn since.

Wikipedia says llyn is the Welsh word for lake.

I looked at NameVoyager, a site that neveu told us about, and found LLoyd and Llewellyn, but no other LL names.

I found the Welsh names, LLeucu and Llinus, on this site (LLuvia and LLuvy are both Spanish, according to the site). And I've come across the names LLion Iwan and LLion Jones.

Now, one L is silent in LLyn, LLoyd, and LLewellyn [at least in American English). What about LLion?

Dictionary.com lists LLwyd and gives a (presumably Welsh) pronunciation.

Here's a list of Welsh baby names and their meanings. I have no idea how complete or accurate it is.

There are lot of Welsh place names beginning with LL, though I don't know of any in the USA. Any help with pronunciation?

Can you think of any other people names beginning with LL?

This message has been edited. Last edited by: tinman,

Makes you wonder if perhaps one of their kings had a severe stutter.

The digraph ll is used in both languages for a single sound; in Wlesh for a voiceless alveolar lateral fricative /ɬ/ and in Catalan for a palatal lateral approximant /ʎ/. In Welsh, many placenames begin with llan which means 'place of; church' + a proper name, usually a saint's, e.g., Llanisien. In Catalan, the 19th century politician, Francesc Macià i Llussà, and the writer Ramon Llull (aka lully or Lull). Welsh also has ff /f/ (f is /v/) and dd /ð/. Both Welsh and Catalan orthography are much more rationale than English "system".

I forgot to leave a link to Llywd at Dictionary.com. There it's the Ll pronounced Hl; [loid] or /lɔɪd/. You can push a button to hear it spoken. Likewise with two more names I've found: LLudd, [hleeth] or /hlið/; and Llyr, /hlir/ or [hleer].

Yes, they have completely updated that baby name graph. I was in on some of the beta testing they did. I just love that site. I could put names into their graph all day!